Sea, Ice and Rock

Chris Bonington & Robin Knox-Johnston

Vertebrate Publishing

£12.99

Chris Bonington was in New Zealand, considering a climb in Tien Shan (part of the USSR – remember?) when Robin Knox-Johnston persuaded him they should sail together to Greenland and climb there instead. They collected a crew and did just that – each of them sampling each other’s expertise. This new edition of their joint book (first published in 1993)  has acquired a certain period charm: GPS is still a novelty: there’s no radar to help Suhaili in fog and when they hear news of the fall of Gorbachev, they wonder whether their younger members will be needed to fight. It remains a good read, full of insight and some excitement.  RK-J’s tenacity through his first climb had me gripping the pages, white-knuckled!